COLOMBIA YIELDS TO U.S. PRESSURE ON ANTI-DRUG HERBICIDE

Under pressure from the United States, Colombia has reluctantly agreed
to take the first step toward developing a powerful biological
herbicide against the coca and heroin-poppy fields that are spreading
almost unchecked across its countryside, according to officials from
both countries.

For years, U.S. officials have been quietly debating ways to conduct
field tests of such an herbicide, developed from a fungus that occurs
naturally in many types of coca and other plants.

Now, Colombian officials say they are completing a proposal to the
United Nations that would include testing for the presence of the
fungus, Fusarium oxysporum, in coca, the raw material of cocaine. If
the fungus is found in Colombian varieties of coca, Colombian
scientists would then evaluate its effectiveness, safety and
environmental impact before deciding whether to produce the herbicide.

"What we want is a program of research - and only research - on the
use of biological controls against these crops," said Juan Mayr,
Colombia's environment minister.

The Colombian government's uneasy support for the project comes as
President Bill Clinton is about to sign a bill providing $1.3 billion
in aid to Colombia to fight drug traffickers and the insurgents who
protect their trade.

Some powerful Republicans in the U.S. Congress told Colombian
officials that they were supporting the spending on the expectation
that Colombia would agree to explore the use of Fusarium fungus in its
coca fields.

Within the Clinton administration, officials said, the testing of
fungal herbicides was also pushed by the White House anti-drug policy
chief, Barry McCaffrey, and by officials of the U.S. Southern Command,
which is overseeing an overhaul of Colombia's armed forces.

Environmentalists and other activists in both countries are raising a
din of objections to any field tests of the fungus, arguing that it is
virtually a biological weapon -- one that might upset Colombia's
ecology or endanger fanners, animals and food crops.

Last year, similar complaints by enviromnentalists in Florida prompted
state officials there to put aside plans to test a variant of Fusarium
for possible use against marijuana fields.

Several plant pathologists who have studied the fungus extensively
said there was relatively little scientific basis for the assertions
about its danger. They acknowledged that a great deal of testing still
needs to be done, but they added that the most significant questions
might have less to do with the safety of the fungus than with its
effectiveness and cost.

The concerns about Fusarium's proposed use as a mycoherbicide, or
fungal herbicide, have been heightened by the shadowy history of
research into its impact on drug crops. Indeed, the proposed Colombian
study comes after years of often secret investigations by scientists
in the United States and the former Soviet Union.

Officials said Fusarium, a naturally occurring fungus with variants
that can cause wilt in everything from tomatoes and grain to
marijuana, was first identified as a possible weapon in the drug fight
by CIA scientists in the early 1980s. 'Me U.S. Agriculture Department
began more extensive research into the use of the fungus on coca in
1988, and it continued, mostly in secret, for nearly a decade.

At roughly the same time, Soviet biological-weapons scientists at the
Institute of Plant Genetics in Uzbekistan were working to develop
Fusarium fungus, plant bacteria and other pathogens to destroy opium
poppies.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States continued to
pay for research at the laboratory as part of an effort to keep its
impoverished scientists from joining the biological weapons programs
of countries like Iraq and Iran.

COCAINE USE IN EUROPE ON RISE

The United States released estimates Wednesday pointing to a dramatic
rise in the use of cocaine in Europe, bolstering its case for greater
European involvement in helping Colombia wage war on drugs, Reuters
reported from Washington.

European countries, led by Spain, Germany and Italy, consumed 194 tons
to 207 tons of cocaine last year, up from 104 tons to 110 tons in
1996, according to the study prepared by Mr. McCaffrey's office.

Ninety percent of the cocaine flowing into Europe comes from Colombia,
and is mostly smuggled in ships across the Atlantic, partly through
Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, according to the study.